After Berlin, Rome. Matteo Salvini, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, wrote on Thursday 29 October that Italy “supports a swift EU approval” of Tesla’s driver assistance system. He said so after a conversation with Elon Musk. Italy is the European Union’s third most populous country, and its weight counts in the EU vote still to come.
Matteo Salvini’s message (Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Italy), posted on X on 29 October 2026 at 9:21 CET
“Very positive and constructive conversation with @elonmusk today. Italy is looking with great interest at the opportunities offered by assisted driving technologies, with a focus on innovation and road safety, and supports a swift EU approval of Tesla Assisted Driving. Thanks for the exchange, Elon!”
What Rome says, and what it does not
The message is three sentences long. It states a position of principle: Italy supports a European approval, and wants it quick. It uses the name Tesla now gives FSD (Supervised) in Europe, “Tesla Assisted Driving”. And it stresses road safety, a theme Salvini’s ministry keeps highlighting: on 15 October it welcomed 162 fewer road deaths in Italy in 2025.
The message does not say everything. It gives no date and announces no Italian procedure of its own. Rome does not say it will recognise on its territory the provisional approval granted by the Netherlands, as the countries already allowing the system have done: it talks about an EU approval. At the time of writing, the ministry had published no press release on its website, and neither Tesla nor Elon Musk had commented on the exchange on X.
Why this support matters
Since the provisional approval granted on 10 April 2026 by the Dutch authority, the RDW, each European country has moved at its own pace. Tesla currently lists ten European countries where the system is deployed, from the Netherlands to Latvia. An approval valid across the whole Union requires the EU’s Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles to agree by qualified majority: at least 15 of the 27 member states, representing at least 65% of the population.
None of the Union’s four most populous countries is on that list. Yet large countries weigh heavily in the count, and two of them have now spoken out for a swift EU approval. On 6 October, German Transport Minister Steffen Bilger pledged to push for a quick approval across Europe, after reaching an agreement with Tesla on speed. Italy follows three weeks later. France, the second most populous country, remains: its transport ministry started road tests on 2 September and has agreed to answer our questions in writing; its answers will be published once it has approved them.
What it means for owners
- In Italy, as in France, FSD (Supervised) cannot be activated yet.
- Rome’s support creates no authorisation: it counts when the EU votes, and no date has been set for that vote.
- Even once approved, the system remains driver assistance: the person behind the wheel stays responsible.
Country by country, what remains to be obtained is detailed in our report on 28 European governments. Drive a Tesla? Register your car on Mon Tesla Mag to be told when the system reaches you.
This article is also available in French.
FSD and Europe’s governments. On 20 October 2026, Tesla Mag launched a written consultation of the transport authorities of 28 European states on Tesla’s FSD (Supervised). Italy is one of them; its ministry has not answered us yet. Official answers, commitments and refusals: follow the consultation, state by state, in our report.
Sources: Matteo Salvini’s message on X, 29 October 2026; news page of the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (mit.gov.it), checked on 29 October around 12:45 CET, with no press release on the subject; German Federal Ministry of Transport statement, 6 October 2026; list of countries published by Tesla (tesla.com/fsd/safety), read on 27 October; voting rules of the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles. Photo: Tesla.
